Civilian jurors are conscripted into high-stakes moral decisions without legal training

Evidence

Jurors in capital trials face a grave moral predicament. In states that have the death penalty or in certain federal cases, the jury’s verdict determines whether the defendant will live or die. Jury duty in a murder case is an unusual morally laden situation. Ordinary citizens are recruited by civic requirement, rather than by choice, to make a weighty moral decision with the most serious consequences—without being schooled in the intricacies of the law. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1981

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1981